Huntsman forecasts China reforms

The China Post--Former United States Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman told the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday that China is on the brink of sociopolitical reforms.

Huntsman, who served as ambassador from Aug. 11, 2009 to April 30, 2011, met with DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang for an hour yesterday at the party's Taipei headquarters. Half of the talk was open to the press.

Su opened the public portion, asking Huntsman about the Internet's role in China's democratization. Huntsman called the Internet a "powerful engine for change" and told Su that China is gearing up for shifts on human rights and "other issues."

"I believe that the leaders in China understand that change is inevitable," Huntsman told Su yesterday.

"It can't happen now — because it's a political year," he said.

But it's a different story following the accession of the 18th Party Congress this October, according to Huntsman.

"In the next two, three, four years, we can expect some things in the way of change."

Huntsman is in Taiwan July 16-18 to speak with leaders including President Ma Ying-jeou, Foreign Affairs Minister Timothy Yang and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Kuo-hsin Liang. He is set today to lecture on the challenges and opportunities that face the U.S. in 2012, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.